Peter Berg

Peter Berg steadied his hand on thrillers drawn from real events. After Lone Survivor and Deepwater Horizon came Patriots Day, which follows the 2013 Boston marathon bombings and the hunt for the men behind them along several strands at once; what stands out there is his restraint, his realism and his attention to procedure, and the result is counted among the modern peaks of a genre that also holds Zero Dark Thirty. Deepwater Horizon, adapted from a long New York Times piece, lays out the procedural order of that bad day with real fidelity, and the ease of the playing keeps a script thick with technical jargon approachable; the film is scathing about the company chiefly answerable for one of the worst oil disasters on record. Friday Night Lights, The Kingdom and The Rundown are his other work as a director.